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| Characters Name |
Yamil Shaium |
| Role Of Character In Plot |
Yamil Shaium is one of the friends of the Narrator in the novel. He is of Arab descent and talks with Santiago in Arabic, usually twisting the meaning of words literally to become something amusing. He is the one to give information to Cristo Bedoya about the incentives of murder from the Vicario twins. Yamil was the only person to actually carry out his thought to help Santiago Nasar before he was murdered. |
| Significance of Name |
Yamil Shaium is not a traditional Arab name. In fact, it is difficult to find its direct translation. However, I was able to find a few Arabic and Hindi words close to it. These words are part of the character's name and through comparing them to similar words; we see how this unique name is created and how it reflects this character. So, by first looking at his first name Yamil, which I cannot find a definition for, I recognized it was close to the Spanish name Yamila, which means the sister. Granted, it is a female name; however, by turning it into a masculine name, Yamil, as a close friend of Santiago would be in this scenario and culture, it starts to have a clearer meaning. Some of the only words the character Yamil Shaium says are, "I'll see you Saturday" (121) which is significant because it was the day of Christ's death or his reification. This relates to the idea that Santiago is compared many times to the Christian savior, he even looked like 'the stigma of Christ' (87). So I looked at the religious, Christian connotations of the name Yamila. Friends, who are Christians, consider themselves brothers and sisters in Christ, which is an allusion to the brotherhood or friendship that Yamil and Santiago both feel. Therefore, the name Yamil, in the masculine form, is an allusion to the friendship and right Yamil had to inform his friend of his upcoming death, even if it was in a jest. A second translation of the exact name Yamil in Urdu, a lanaguage spoken in the India and Pakistanian cultures defines it as a name given to a man who spreads feelings of friendship and love. He is a social figure, just like Yamil Shaium. He is exactly that, a friend who tries to warn his friend of death, which can de defined as an act of love. Another close translation is the Arabic name Yameel which means oath. This translation is significant because it reflects the promise he kept by "being the only one who did what he proposed" (121), or in other words by being the only character to carry out his promise and decision to help Santiago. By having a first name that proposes the first action of the character, making an oath, we can now study the second name to see what he did with the oath. The last name of Shauim is close to many words. A word in Hindi close to it is Shaima, which means good-natured. Another Arabic word with the same beginning is Shimah, which also is about the nature or habit of a person. From these two close words, we can deduce that the meaning of Shaium and its placement as the name of this character is because of his noble intentions. He is after all "the only one who did what he proposed doing" (121) and he was used to making jokes with Santiago. Therefore, a name that reflects his happy, and honest personality or nature, is symbolic of the character he is in the novel. However, the name Shauim is not like other usual Arab last names that tend to not end in 'im' but rather a 'g' or 'y', which also reflects how his action to carry out his oath, as the name Yamil suggests, shows his uniqueness of actually being the one character to warn Santiago directly of his death as he planned before seeing him. Yamil Shauim is everything that his name suggests, a friend who sticks to his oath and therefore has a noble nature. |
| Student Name |
Kaylee Sager |